The idea that Andy Reid always had final say is a bit of a myth, according to former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

Before being ousted in June, team president Joe Banner sometimes exercised more authority than Reid, who was fired Monday, McNabb said Thursday on Comcast SportsNet's Daily News Live.

The Banner remarks came in response to a question from host Michael Barkann: "As far as you know, when you were with the team, the 'final-say' provision, who had it? Was it Andy? Was it Joe?"

"It seems like when Andy went through his issues with the family and his sons early on, that was a time for Joe to step in and try to make every decision," McNabb said. "That's when you kind of felt like Andy lost his power. And every decision that was made, it was going through Joe."

A common public perception was that Eagles general managers had clout in the organization, but McNabb painted a different picture.

"It didn't matter who the GM was at that time, because when Tom Heckert was here, it seemed like Joe made every decision," McNabb said. "And it was so easy for him to just kind of push Heckert out, you know. Heckert was up for the Atlanta job, and he told him to go and interview for it."

Heckert, who became Eagles GM in January 2006, left four years later to assume the same title with Cleveland Browns. But on Monday, a few months after Banner was named Browns CEO, Heckert was fired.

When Heckert left the Eagles, Howie Roseman took over as GM, but at first he seemed to be doing Banner's bidding, according to McNabb.

Banner "was already grooming Howie" to take Heckert's position, "so basically he could make every decision and just have Howie there with the title. And that's the way things were the last couple years, of Howie just being there, you know, suggesting a lot of things, but with Joe making the decision," McNabb said.

That seems to fit remarks made Monday by owner Jeffrey Lurie, who gave Roseman credit for the 2012 draft, but took him off the hook for previous ones.

"The mistakes that were made in the 2011 draft have little or nothing to do with Howie's evaluations," Lurie said.

McNabb seemed to confirm rumors of power struggles: "Now Andy came back and regained some of the power, but Joe was the one that was holding all of the power, I felt, and everyone in the locker room knew that."

Sounds like things the last couple of years in Philly was a mess on multiple levels. We saw first hand what a cluster f**k looked like here in KC. Sometimes when situations like this arise all you can do is clean house and everyone involved get a new change of scenery.

The people in Philly were no longer Andy's guys running the show. Here in KC, these will be Reid's hand picked front office guys (Dorsey and Heckert?). This time around also the only person Andy really needs to answer to is Owner Clark Hunt.

Sounds like things the last couple of years in Philly was a mess on multiple levels. We saw first hand what a cluster f**k looked like here in KC. Sometimes when situations like this arise all you can do is clean house and everyone involved get a new change of scenery.

The people in Philly were no longer Andy's guys running the show. Here in KC, these will be Reid's hand picked front office guys (Dorsey and Heckert?). This time around also the only person Andy really needs to answer to is Owner Clark Hunt.

That is what it sounds like. That is also how it was with Dick Vermiel when he was here. CP never really got in his way, anything DV wanted, CP/Lamar went out and got. It seemed like the opposite when Pioli was in here. We were getting Pioli players, and not necessarily the players the coaches wanted.

There was a power struggle here. It turned into an epic disaster. This was a well-run organization for a long time, but somewhere a lot went wrong. It has never been made public as to what happened, but by piecing it together, eventually egos started to get out of control and Joe Banner eventually wanted more power. He started taking control of personnel and Andy Reid didn't like it. Then eventually it led to bad blood between Banner and Lurie.

The whole thing was a mess and the team suffered. The funny part is I knew this would happen years ago. I did not like Banner at all. The man is an egomaniac and so many in the organization are pure arrogance.

Jeff Lurie deserves a ton of blame. You guys may not know this since you aren't Eagles fans, but Banner and Lurie were childhood friends. They used to go to Red Sox games together when they were younger.

Lurie didn't want to step up and tell Banner to know his place, because they were great friends. He let the problem fester and grow out of control. He didn't take control of his own team until the foundation started to crumble and collapse. If he would have put a stop to the madness years ago, who knows what happens.